Lawyer Paul Mwangi, the late Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Party Leader Raila Odinga’s legal advisor, has lifted the lid on what he describes as a calculated political strategy by the late former Prime Minister in his political moves.

Speaking during an exclusive interview with a local radio station on Saturday, March 28, 2026, Mwangi claimed that Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna was deliberately positioned as an “exit plan” in the former premier’s cooperation with President William Ruto.

Raila’s strategy

Mwangi said Raila had carefully structured his political moves to ensure he was never boxed into a single position.

According to Mwangi, Raila’s decision to engage with Ruto politically was not without safeguards. He claimed the veteran opposition leader maintained parallel factions within ODM as part of a broader survival strategy.

“When Raila started working with Ruto, he had an exit strategy… the people who were fighting his cooperation with Ruto, that is Sifuna’s side,” Mwangi said.

He explained that the existence of a dissenting faction allowed Raila to retain leverage in negotiations, giving him the option to shift positions if the alliance failed.

“If things were not going to work out, he would have turned to his militant side and told them, ‘Come get me,'” Mwangi added.

Two factions

Mwangi further argued that Raila’s approach of maintaining competing internal camps was a deliberate political tactic that had served him well across multiple coalitions.

“The aim of having two factions while entering into a deal was that he was a good strategist… he would never allow you to box him in,” he said.

The lawyer noted that this balancing act enabled Raila to navigate complex political arrangements while preserving influence and bargaining power.

Mwangi suggested that the current turmoil within ODM is partly due to the absence of Raila’s unifying authority following his death.

“The problem that we have today is that he passed away before he called people to order,” he said.

His remarks come at a time when ODM is grappling with internal divisions, with rival factions emerging around different leaders and ideological positions.

Whilst Siaya senator Oburu Odinga has been ratified as the new ODM party leader and empowered to proceed with structured negotiations with the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA), Sifuna has maintained that he cannot work as the secretary general under his leadership.